Identification of an interferon in murine placentas

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Abstract
It is becoming increasingly apparent that interferon exerts a major role in cellular regulatory processes. Besides its well known antiviral properties1, interferon has been shown to affect cell surface antigen expression2,3, lymphoid cell function4,5, as well as cellular protein synthesis6,7 and growth8–11. To date, however, there is little information available on the mechanism of interferon production in vivo except in response to a variety of exogenously administered viral and nonviral systemic inducers. We report here the detection of a pregnancy-associated elevation of interferon, or an interferon-like component, in selected reproductive tissues of mice.